THE OLD FURNACE
In the days of our grandfathers the “furnace” was a place of great importance. It was a busy place where a large number of moulders, patternmakers and other workmen were employed in manufacturing all kinds of stoves at that time in use, iron pots, kettles, smoothing irons, sleigh-shoes, ploughs, pails, bar-iron for all sorts of purposes, and numerous other articles. The buzz of industry continued day and night, and the furnace fires were kept in a white glow. It was christened Port Normandale in honor of its proprietors, the Van Normans, and it was the principal trade emporium in old Long Point settlement when the site of Chicago presented nothing but prairie mud and the wild Indian’s wigwam.[1]
In the early days of the settlement Noah Fairchild made the discovery that certain boggy sections contained peroxide of iron, and he always declared that it existed in paying quantities, and that a little capital only was needed to convert the ore into useful utensils. Finally, in 1818, Mr. Fairchild drew the attention of one Samuel Mason, an Englishman possessing some experience in the handling of iron ore, to the fact that Charlotteville contained large quantities of bog ore; and, after making an investigation, Mr. Mason resolved to build a furnace. Government land patents at this time reserved all mines, minerals and white pine timber. The bog ore, therefore, belonged to the government, and the first move made by Mason was to secure a Government permit to make use of it. The permission was granted without stint or limit. At this time one Samuel Long owned a pottery at the mouth of the creek on the lake shore, which had been in operation about eight years. Mason selected this place for the location of his furnace, and he purchased the lot and Long‘s interests, accordingly. The first work undertaken by Mason was to change the course of the creek and build a proper sluice way. He was a hard worker and possessed a rude, coarse nature; and while engaged in this preliminary work had no use for hat or pantaloons. On one occasion the Governor of Upper Canada, while visiting Fort Norfolk, expressed a desire to interview the English capitalist who proposed to develop the bog mines of Norfolk, and Colonel Salmon and John Harris were deputized to present His Excellency to the distinguished ditch digger. Mason was found at work, bare-headed and up to his knees in mud. Being quite unpresentable, the Colonel advised him to put on his “trousers,” but Mason could not see any necessity for taking this extra trouble, and he declared that he would not “put on his breeks” for the governor or any other man.
For some reason Mason did not carry his plans to a successful issue.[2] In about 1822 his interest was transferred to Joseph Van Norman and George Tillson, and Hiram Capron, of Rochester, assumed the management of the business.
Mr. Tillson withdrew from the business in 1825 and established a forge on the Otter creek, known as the “Dereham Forge.” This forge was the germ from which has developed the present neat and prosperous town of Tilsonburg. When George Tillson
built the first home at this place there were only six settlers in the entire township. The Tillsons and Van Normans were related by marriage, and were noted for their generosity and business enterprise. Indeed, the secret of Tilsonburg’s growth and business prosperity may be attributed, in no small degree, to the enterprising spirit of E. D. Tillson, son of George, the old pioneer.[3]
Mr. Capron withdrew from the old Normandale business simultaneously with Mr. Tillson, and from this time on the works were controlled by the Messrs. Van Norman—Joseph and Benjamin. They possessed ample capital, and the business was rapidly developed. Previous to this Normandale was known as “Potter’s Creek,” so named on account of Long’s pottery. In 1829 the Van Normans placed the management in the hands of Elijah Leonard and his son Louis, who were expert American iron-workers; and during the ten years following, the volume of business transacted at Normandale was immense and exceedingly profitable. The ore was absolutely free, and it was near by and easy of access. It was hauled from the bogs to the furnace in the winter time by farmers, at a cost of from $2.50 to $3.00 per ton, in trade; and as the Company had no competition, they fixed their prices and regulated their margins of profit to suit themselves. Notwithstanding this fact, the business was a good thing for the settlers. It furnished them employment in the winter time, and by this outside means they were enabled to procure their supplies, although the prices charged were exorbitant. A large force of men were employed at the works, and this made a home market for much of the settlers’ produce. The enormous consumption of charcoal at the furnace proved another source of profit to the settlers, as it devolved upon them to furnish the needed supply. The burning of charcoal pits enabled more than one settler in those days to pay for his land, and, at the same time, get rid’ of the timber which was an impediment possessing no commercial value. Twenty-five cords of wood made one thousand bushels of charcoal, worth $50; and when it is remembered that this work was done at times when the work of the farm did not command attention, this advantage to the settler will be readily seen.
In 1840 the furnace had reached the zenith of its prosperity. It is said that the Van Normans at this time were worth $100,000, but the wondrous prosperity which crowned their efforts at Normandale turned their heads. The Leonards had started business for themselves in St. Thomas, and the Van Normans ventured too much on their own knowledge of bog ore, and this led them into difficulties which caused their ruin. They determined to duplicate their Normandale works at Marmora, but they miscalculated on the nature of the ore at that place, and the adventure crippled them financially. The Normandale business suffered a decline from which it never recovered, and about the year 1852 it ceased to exist.
The bog ore in Norfolk was by no means exhausted. Considerable quantities of it were found in Houghton, of which a small portion only had been taken. The first Charlotteville ore was taken from Lot 11, in the 7th concession; and after the most prolific beds in this township had given up their treasure the township of Windham was entered and a considerable supply taken from the vicinity of Nixon. The Van Normans operated a branch forge in Doan’s Hollow, where they manufactured axes and other articles. There was a forge also in Lynn Valley operated by the Austins.
The bog ore of Norfolk yielded from forty to sixty pounds of iron from one hundred pounds of ore, the average being about fifty pounds. When the original test was made a bar of iron was made of the sample, being about a foot in length, which was kept in the Fairchild family for many years as a keepsake. The Norfolk ore was of a superior quality, containing percentages of silver and lead which made the iron more malleable. It is said that a stranger once visited the furnace and obtained permission to experiment with a quantity of melted iron. With the aid of certain instruments and chemicals he extracted the silver and lead from the mass, and the iron thus treated was so brittle that it could not be used for the purpose intended, and the enterprising stranger was relieved from further duty.
There is something very peculiar about this bog iron ore. It is a formation, a something that grows, and its value depends quite largely upon its age. It is a hydrated peroxide of iron, found only in wet, springy bogs. It begins to form at the head of a stream, and its growth, or formation, is caused by the action of the water in forcing the iron rust through the lower-lying bogs. Sometimes this ore forms on the bottom of the lake, as evidenced by quantities of it being washed ashore. Just what this substance is, that is thus converted into iron, has often been a subject of discussion, but Ehrenberg, the eminent German naturalist, determined that it proceeds from the shields of animalcules, and it was his opinion that the mineral itself is composed of incalculable multitudes of these shields. This is a most reasonable theory, as the alluvial soils, bogs and lake bottoms where bog ore abound, are literally alive with animalcula. A gentleman from Hamilton was in Charlotteville quite recently prospecting among the old bog ore beds in view of making shipments to that city, but the result of his investigation was not ascertained.
Elijah Leonard, the iron-worker employed in 1829 to superintend the Normandale works, was no less a personage than the veteran old Senator, the Hon. Elijah Leonard, of London, and head of the well-known firm of E. Leonard and Sons. Frank E. Leonard, Esq., one of the sons, who was a member of the first London Aldermanic Board, and who was elected Mayor of the city in 1857, learned the trade of moulding, as did also his brother Lyman, in the old Normandale furnace. Their brother Louis clerked in the Messrs. Van Norman’s store at the same time. From a published autobiography of the Leonard family, under the head, “Primitive Iron Foundry,” the following extracts are taken:
“We lived on the east bluff in a frame house, on a lot owned for many years by Mr. Tolmie, but the building has long since disappeared. The furnace consisted of a brick stack or chimney, about thirty feet high and five feet “bosh,” built on the side of the hill. Motive power was obtained from the fine stream of water running through the village, which kept in motion an overshot wheel about fourteen feet in diameter, that in turn drove a double piston bellows by means of cranks. Only one tuyere was employed to admit the blast. My father (the Hon. Senator) had charge of the works, and directed the mixing of ore and charcoal in the top house. The material was dumped into the furnace by barrows, and the iron, when melted, ran down into a hearth about two feet wide and five feet long. Into this receptacle we dipped our ladles and carried off the product direct to the flasks. When in full blast we took off two heats in twenty-four hours. At this time Normandale was a thriving place, the furnace requiring about four hundred men directly and indirectly getting out and teaming ore, burning charcoal, working about the furnace, and attending to the mercantile part of the establishment. The site of the furnace can yet be located, but in place of smoke, and glare, and heat, and the throb of the bellows, all is quiet save the murmur of the ever-running stream. A vegetable garden takes the place of the top house, and the side hill is covered by a goodly sized orchard.”
[1] Normandale is located on Lot 16, Concession A, Charlotteville Township, originally a Crown Lease granted to Job Lodor on March 19, 1803 (Charlotteville Township Papers Doc. No. 250). Lodor built a distillery, warehouse and two dwelling houses mentioned in his Upper Canada Land Petition “L” Bundle “Leases 1801-36, Doc. No. 17. Then, after discovering he could not obtain an outright grant of the lot, he moved to the District Capital town of Charlotteville and seems to have either let his lease lapse or transferred it to Samuel Long who took over the property. Samuel Long, a pottery maker, was the first to utilise the bog iron deposits to supply his neighbours with earthenware vessels and utensils. His success resulted in the stream being called Potter’s Creek. During the War of 1812, Long joined Adjutant William Gordon’s Detachment of the Norfolk County Militia, listed in a September 1814 Muster Roll. Nothing further is heard of him in Norfolk records. An insightful story of the furnace is “The Famous Normandale Furnace” by Dr. J. A. Bannister in Bruce M. Pearce, Compiler, Historical Highlights of Norfolk County (Griffin and Richmond Company Ltd., Hamilton, ON: 1973), Vol. 2, p. 55
[2] John Mason succeeded to the Crown Lease on Lot 16, Concession A, Charlotteville Township and applied to the Government for permission to mine the bog ore on the property. He died while constructing the foundry and his widow Elizabeth Mason filed for Letters of Administration over his estate on November 11, 1820 (London District Surrogate Registry, Doc. No. 84). She sold her interest in the manufacturing plant to the partnership of Joseph Van Norman, George Tillson, Hiram Capron and John White about 1822. White subsequently died and the partnership was dissolved on February 20, 1827 to be effective on May 1, announced in The Gore Gazette, issue of February 23, 1828. Joseph and Benjamin Van Norman continued the business under the subsequent management of Elijah Leonard.
[3] It is noted that Owen spelled the family name with two “l’s” and the town with only one “l”. Although named for the Tillson family, the town of Tillsonburg lacked it’s second “l” until the early 1900’s. Whiting Van Norman, brother and partner of Joseph Van Norman had a daughter Mary Ann (1831-1911) who married on July 4, 1850, Edwin Delavan Tillson (1825-1902), son and heir of George Tillson who founded The Dereham Forge. The marriage was recorded in the Brock District Marriage Register. The couple did much to develop the town of Tillsonburg and made it their life long home. They were buried in Tillson Cemetery.